D.F.C. will write-off, discount student loans

Last month it was housing loans; today Cabinet extended its cheap sale to students by offering write offs and discounts to over fifteen hundred borrowers from the Development Finance Corporation. According to the press briefing on Monday’s Cabinet meeting, that body will recommend to the D.F.C. board that all student loans with original amounts of five thousand dollars or less be totally forgiven. That’s right; if you borrowed five thousand dollars or less for educational purposes, whether your loan is current or in arrears, it will be totally written off. In other words: yu gaan klyaa! According to the Cabinet release the write-off covers loans to eight hundred eighteen people and totals three point three million dollars.

But what about students who borrowed more than five thousand dollars? They’re covered too, although not as generously. For example, if your loan is non-performing and you begin to repay, you will qualify for a twenty percent discount. If your loan is performing then your continued payments will qualify for a twenty-five percent discount. And if your loan is in good standing and you decide to pay off the full amount in cash, you can do so at a discount of thirty percent. According to government, this offer applies to six hundred and eighty-nine borrowers with potential discounts running as high as three point one million dollars.

Now, before anyone goes rushing out to their bank or credit union to borrow money to pay off their newly discounted student loan, please note that this plan is merely a recommendation that will go to the D.F.C. board for formal implementation. As to who will pay for the Cabinet’s largesse, we’ll presume that–like last month’s discounts on housing loans–the write-offs will simply be set off against the millions of dollars that D.F.C. owes the government from debts that it could not repay.